Tire supplying apparatus

ABSTRACT

A tire supplying apparatus has a self-propelled green tire carrying wagon for carrying a green tire to be vulcanized, a green tire unloading device mounted on the wagon and a green tire receiving stand disposed at a predetermined position located in front of a vulcanizing press or a green tire loading device mounted on the vulcanizing press. The green tire unloading device is provided with an aligning mechanism adapted to hold the unloaded green tire so as to displace it in any radial direction while it is lifted up, the aligning mechanism serving to locate its center in correct alignment with respect to the green tire receiving stand or the green tire loading device.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 511,092 filed July 6, 1983.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a green tire supplying apparatus andmore particularly to a green tire supplying apparatus for loading avulcanizing press or a green tire receiving stand disposed at apredetermined position located in front of the vulcanizing press, with agreen tire to be vulcanized which is unloaded from a green tire carryingwagon.

To assure that green tires are successively vulcanized in a vulcanizingpress by supplying them therein automatically, most hitherto knownvulcanizing presses were provided with a green tire receiving standadapted to receive a green tire to be vulcanized next. The said greentire receiving stand was located outside the vulcanizing press at aposition in front of the press.

Therefore, all operations could be automatically carried out from thestep of storing green tires until the step of vulcanizing them, whengreen tires prepared in the preceding assembling and molding processwere automatically delivered from a storage room or the like inconformance with signals issued from a plurality of vulcanizing presses,so that they were unloaded on each of the green tire receiving standsdisposed in front of the vulcanizing presses.

To facilitate understanding of the present invention, a conventionaltire supplying apparatus will be briefly described with reference toFIG. 1.

As schematically illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of vulcanizingpresses A are provided with green tire receiving stands B each of whichis located at a predetermined position located in front of the relatedvulcanizing press, and a self-propelled green tire carrying wagon Dmoves in parallel to the array of vulcanizing presses while it is guidedby means of a conductor C embedded in the floor. Green tires on thecarrying wagon are unloaded on the green tire receiving stands B when itcomes to a stop in front of the latter. Operations have already beenautomated up to the step of unloading the green tires onto the greentire receiving stands. Since unloading operation for transferring greentires E fom the carrying wagon D onto the green tire receiving stands Bwas manually carried out, one or two operators were needed by an arrayof vulcanizing presses for the unloading operation, although operationof the vulcanizing press was fully automated.

A few reasons why the unloading operation for green tires to bevulcanized has not been automated will be noted below.

(1) Since the green tire carrying wagon D is stopped at a predeterminedposition only at reduced positional accuracy, it is impossible tocorrectly unload a green tire onto the green tire receiving stand B.

(2) It is important that each of the green tire receiving stands B belocated exactly relative to the center of the corresponding vulcanizingpress A. In some manufacturing lines a plurality of vulcanizing pressesA manufactured by different manufacturers are arranged and thereby greentire receiving stands B are disposed in a line with much difficulty.Provided that a single manufacturing line is constituted by a pluralityof the same type of vulcanizing presses manufactured by the samemanufacturer, it is practically difficult for the center of each of thevulcanizing presses A to be correctly located on a straight line. Thus,in practice the center of each of the vulcanizing presses is appreciablyoffset therefrom and thereby the position of the corresponding greentire receiving stand B is dislocated from its own specified position byan appreciable distance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made with the foregoing background inmind and its object resides in providing a tire supplying apparatuswhich assures that green tires on a self-propelled green tire carryingwagon are automatically unloaded onto a green tire receiving standdisposed in front of an array of vulcanizing presses or directly on agreen tire loading device mounted on a vulcanizing press.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tire supplyingapparatus which assures that green tires on a self-propelled green tirecarrying wagon are automatically loaded directly on a bead ring on a diein a vulcanizing press without any necessity for a green tire receivingstand or a green tire transferring device mounted on the vulcanizingpress.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will bemore clearly apparent from reading the following description prepared inconjunction of the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings will be briefly described below.

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically illustrating a conventional greentire supplying system.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a tire supplying apparatus in accordance witha first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged illustration of the parts in area III of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on line IV--IV in FIG. 3, shown fromthe bottom.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a tire supplying apparatus in accordance witha second embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged illustration of the parts in area VI of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a part of the tire supplying apparatusschematically illustrating how automatic alignment is achieved in thesecond embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described in greater detail first withreference to FIGS. 2 to 4 which illustrate the first embodiment of theinvention.

As shown in FIG. 2, a tire supplying apparatus includes a hitherto knownautomatic vulcanizing press A, an automatic green tire loading device Fattached to said automatic vulcanizing press A, a green tire holdingdevice F', a green tire receiving stand B, and an automatic green tireunloading device H mounted on a green tire carrying wagon D. The greentire unloading device H is similar to the green tire loading device F,and has a device F" similar to the green tire holding device F'. It alsohas an automatic aligning device G. A conventional conductor is embeddedin the floor and a guiding device C mounted on the wagon D follows theconductor. A number of vulcanizing presses A and a number of green tirereceiving stands B are arranged in line in the same manner as theconventional vulcanizing system as illustrated in FIG. 1.

As is best seen in FIG. 3, the automatic aligning device G includes acircular disc 2 fixedly secured to the fore end part of an arm 1 belowwhich a pair of bearing rails 3a, that are called linear motion bearingsare attached to the bottom thereof in parallel to one another. A pair ofrails 3b are fitted into the pair of bearing rails 3a and anothercircular disc 4 is attached to the bottom of the rails 3b. Further, apair of bearing rails 3c are attached to the bottom of the circular disc4 in the same manner as the foregoing combination of the circular disc 2and the bearing rails 3a. Another pair of rails 3d are fitted into thebearing rails 3c which extend at a right angle relative to the rails 3band a mounting plate 5 for the green tire holding device F" is fixedlysecured to the bottom of the rails 3d. A plurality of coil springs 7 aredisposed between brackets 6 fixed to the peripheral part of the circulardisc 4 and the mounting plate 5 in such a manner that they are caused toexpand or contract resiliently in the same direction as that of therails 3d.

It should be noted that a plurality of coil springs are disposed betweenboth the circular plates 2 and 4 in the same direction as that of therails 3b in the same manner as in the foregoing, although they are notshown in the drawing for the purpose of simplification of illustration.

Further, a pneumatic spring 8 is attached to the bottom of the circularplate 2 so as to inhibit lateral movement of the circular disc 4. Thepneumatic spring 8 is fitted with a frictional plate 9 at the bottomsurface thereof which is adapted to come out of contact with thecircular plate 4 when it is not filled with compressed air.

It should be noted that a braking device similar to the aforesaidpneumatic spring 8 is provided between the circular plate 4 and themounting plate 5, although it is not shown in the drawing for thepurpose of simplification of illustration.

With the green tire unloading device H constructed in theabove-described manner, it is found that a green tire E can be displacedwith very light resistance caused along the rails against displacementafter it is hung up by means of the green tire holding device F". Insome cases it was found that the bearing nuts had a reduced frictionalcoefficient in the range of 0.003 to 0.005 when the rails 3b carried thehung-up material having a weight of 300 Kg (including the weight of agreen tire). Accordingly, the green tire holding device F" can bedisplaced in the direction of rails 3b, the direction of rails 3d or acombined direction of rails 3b and 3d as a certain force is exertedthereon from the outside.

Thus, when a green tire on the green tire carrying wagon D is held byway of the steps of causing a plurality of grasping pawls 10 on thegreen tire holding device F" to contract, inserting them into the beadportion of the green tire and causing them to expand and thereafter itis displaced upward from the green tire carrying wagon D, self-aligningis effected with the aid of the above-described self-aligning mechanismunder the influence of expansion force of the grasping pawls 10 untilthe center of the green tire holding device F" is located in correctvertical alignment with the center of the green tire, as long as theformer is offset from the latter by a short distance.

Then, the pneumatic spring 8 is filled with compressed air whereby theautomatic aligning mechanism is locked while the frictional plate 9 onthe bottom of the pneumatic spring 8 comes in contact with the circularplate 4. Thus, when the arm 1 moves forward to the position locatedabove the green tire receiving stand B and comes to a stop, both thegreen tire and the green tire holding device F" are kept immovable atthe stopped position, because the automatic aligning mechanism islocked. Next, the arm 1 is lowered onto the green tire receiving standB. When the automatic aligning mechanism is released from the lockedstate during the lowering movement of the arm 1, the green tire holdingdevice F" assumes its correct center position under the influence ofexpansive or compressive force of the coil springs 7, provided thatappreciable misalignment takes place when a green tire is hung up fromthe green tire carrying wagon D by means of the green tire holdingdevice F".

The lowered green tire is received on the green tire receiving stand Bby causing a plurality of bead engagement pawls on the green tirereceiving stand B to expand the lower bead portion of the green tire. Ifthe center of the green tire receiving stand B is located in incorrectalignment with the center of the green tire holding device F",self-aligning is effected under the influence of expansive force of thebead engagement pawls on the green tire receiving stand B until correctalignment is restored, whereby the green tire is correctly received onthe center of the green tire receiving stand B without any particulardifficult.

Next, the grasping pawls 10 on the green tire holding device F" arecaused to contract and thereby the lowered green tire is transferred tothe green tire receiving stand B. The green tire holding device F" isthen displaced backward to the position where the green tire carryingwagon D can move easily. Next, the green tire carrying wagon D moves tothe position located in front of another vulcanizing press A or to theplace where green tires are stored.

The green tire held on the green tire receiving stand B is transferredto the interior of the vulcanizing press A in accordance with a hithertoknown process so that it is subjected to vulcanization therein.

Therefore, when the green tire supplying apparatus in accordance withthe above-described embodiment of the invention makes it possible tounload a green tire on the green tire receiving stand B with the aid ofthe green tire holding device F" mounted on the green tire carryingwagon D while correct alignment is automatically achieved. Thus, fullyautomatic operations can be carried out from the beginning step ofstoring green tires till the final step of vulcanization, resulting inmanufacturing cost of tires being substantially reduced.

It should be noted that in the above-described embodiment the tiresupplying operation is carried out by way of the steps of holding agreen tire on the green tire receiving stand B by supporting it from thebottom at the lower bead portion and the thread shoulder thereof,hanging it up with the aid of the green tire loading device F at apredetermined time during the vulcanizing process by grasping it at theupper bead portion, loading it on the center position of the lower diehalf fixedly mounted on the vulcanizing press A while the upper die halfis held away from the lower die half until it is placed on the lowerbead ring on the latter and finally causing it to be released from thegreen tire loading device F (hereinafter referred to as a first system)but the present invention should not be limited only to the first systemand the latter may be replaced with any of the second to fourth systemseach of which will be described later.

Specifically, in the second system the green tire receiving stand is notrequired but the green tire loading device F includes a rotatable greentire grasping portion F'. Tire supplying is carried out by way of thesteps of holding a green tire by supporting it from the bottom at thelower bead portion and the tread shoulder thereof while the green tiregrasping portion F' assumes the upward posture which is directedreversely relative to that in FIG. 2 at the position occupied by thegreen tire receiving stand B in the foregoing system, rotating the greentire grasping portion F' by 180° at a predetermined time during thevulcanizing process to hang it up, loading it on the center position ofthe lower die half fixedly mounted on the vulcanizing press A while theupper die half is held away from the lower die half until it is placedon the lower bead ring on the latter and finally causing the green tiregrasping portion F' to be removed therefrom. Further, in the thirdsystem tire supplying is carried out by way of the steps of loading agreen tire on the upper die half on the vulcanizing press A by fittingit onto the upper bead ring while the green tire grasping portion F' onthe green tire loading device F is not rotated and therefore assumes theupward posture and then causing the green tire grasping portion F' to beremoved from the green tire. Finally, in the fourth system tiresupplying is carried out by way of the steps of holding a green tire onthe green tire receiving stand B in the same manner as in the firstsystem, hanging it up with the aid of the green tire loading device F,rotating the green tire grasping portion F' on the green tire loadingdevice F by 180° to assume the upward posture, loading it on the upperdie half on the vulcanizing press A by fitting it onto the upper beadring while both the upper and lower die halves are kept away from oneanother in the opened state and finally causing the green tire graspingportion F' to be removed from the fitted green tire.

In all embodiments of the invention, the unloading device includes anautomatic aligning device or automatic aligning means such as thoseshown at G, which are connected between an unloading (or loading) arm ofthe unloading device and a holding or grasping device such as that shownat F". The aligning means is capable of moving in any radial directionso as to bring the center of the holding device into correlation withthe center of a selected position for the green tire on or in thevulcanizing press A.

Moreover, the coil springs 7 in the first embodiment of the inventionmay be replaced with pneumatic cylinders. Specifically, a plurality ofpneumatic cylinders are disposed in alignment with the direction of therails in such a manner that a cylinder casing is fixedly secured to thebracket 6 while a cylinder rod is not connected to any member but itsforemost end part abuts against the peripheral part of both the circulardiscs 2 and 5. The cylinder rod is designed so that when it is locatedat the foremost end position of forward movement thereof, the center ofthe circular plates 2 and 5 assumes their own specified center position(the aforesaid foremost end position of forward movement may be a strokeend of the cylinder rod), whereas when it is located at the rearmost endposition of backward movement thereof, displacement of the circularplates 2 and 5 with force exerted thereon from the outside is notinhibited thereby. The arrangement of the pneumatic cylinders in theabove-described manner assures the same functional effects as in thefirst embodiment and since resilient reaction force does not occur dueto displacement of the circular plates 2 and 5 as is different from thefirst embodiment, correct alignment can be achieved easier than in thefirst embodiment and moreover vibratory displacement can besubstantially reduced during return movement of the pneumatic cylinders.

Next, the second embodiment of the present invention will be describedbelow with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7.

In this embodiment a tire supporting apparatus is constructed such thattire supplying operation is carried out by way of the steps of bringinga green tire carrying wagon D to the position located in front of thevulcanizing press A with the aid of a conductor embedded in the floorand a guiding device C, causing it to come to a stop there, lifting upthe righthand moving wheels by means of a jack-up device I fixedlyembedded in the floor at the position located in front of thevulcanizing press, grasping a green tire E on the green tire carryingwagon D with the aid of a green tire loading and unloading device Jmounted on the carrying wagon D to lift it up and then loading it at thecenter of a die on the vulcanizing press A. It should be noted that aplurality of vulcanizing presses A are arranged in line in thesubstantially same manner as in the foregoing embodiment.

As is best seen from FIG. 6, a servo-motor 30 is fixedly secured to abracket 6 on the peripheral part of the circular plate 4 and a screw rod31 is operatively connected to the servo-motor 30 so that a mountingplate 5 is actuated by way of a combination of the screw rod 31 and thenut 32 fixed to the mounting plate 5 as the servo-motor 30 rotates.Further, displacement of the circular plate 4 relative to the circularplate 2 is carried out by means of another servo-motor 33 in the samemanner as the mounting plate 5.

Rails 3b and 3d are arranged in an X-shaped pattern as illustrated inFIG. 7 relative to the direction of movement of the green tire loadingand unloading device J (Y--Y direction in FIG. 7).

Transmitting and receiving (transmitting receiving) devices 34a and 34bof electric wave, sound wave or light beam are mounted on the mountingplate 5 at the positions located on extension of diagonal lines passingthrough the center axis of the mounting plate 5.

Further, another transmitting and receiving devices 35a and 35b aremounted on the circular plate 4 in the same manner as the mounting plate5.

On the other hand, the vulcanizing press A is provided with reflectorplates 36a, 36b, 37a and 37b located opposite to the transmitting andreceiving devices 34a, 34b, 35a and 35b on the horizontally extendinglines passing through the center thereof. Specifically, the reflectorplates 36a, 36b, 37a and 37b are located on the vulcanizing press A insuch a manner that a distance between the transmitting and receivingdevice 34a and the reflector plate 36a is equal to a distance betweenthe transmitting and receiving device 34b and the reflector plate 36bwhile a distance between the transmitting and receiving device 35a andthe reflector plate 37a is equal to a distance between the transmittingand receiving device 35b and the reflector plate 37b, as long as thecircular plate 4 and the mounting plate 5 are located at their ownspecified center.

Owing to the arrangement of the transmitting and receiving devices andthe reflector plates the green tire grasping device F'" is located incorrect alignment with the center of a die on the vulcanizing press A byway of the steps of causing the green tire grasping device F'" to stopits movement at the position in the proximity of the vulcanizing pressA, releasing the locking mechanism (comprising braking means 8 and 9)for the circular plate 4 and the mounting plate 5, causing each of thetransmitting and receiving devices 34a, 34b, 35a and 35b to transmitsignals therefrom and receive reflected signals from the reflectorplates 36a, 36b, 37a and 37b and then actuating the servo-motors 30 and33 until all differences in reflecting time disappears.

After completion of correct alignment the green tire grasping device F'"is caused to move toward the bead ring on the die (or away from it) byactuating the locking mechanism until the bead portion of a green tireis correctly placed on the bead ring. To allow the green tire graspingdevice F'" to stop its movement at the position in the proximity of thecenter of the die a reflecting type transmitting device 38 is mounted ona carriage by which the green tire grasping device F'" moves and areflector plate 39 is provided at a predetermined position on thevulcanizing press so that actuation of a driving device for the carriageis controlled. On the other hand, the green tire carrying wagon Dreceives at least a green tire at the green tire storing place and movesto the position located in front of the vulcanizing press A to come to astop while it is guided by a conventional method during its movement.

After the green tire carrying wagon D is stopped, the righthand movingwheels as seen in the FIG. 5 are lifted by means of jack-up device Iembedded in the floor at the position located in front of thevulcanizing press.

A height of lifting achieved by the jack-up device I is previouslydetermined to such an extent that the green tire grasping device F'" onthe green tire loading and unloading device J assumes the horizontalposture in parallel to a die on the vulcanizing press A when it moves tothe position in the proximity of the center of the die.

The jack-up device I is arranged for each of the vulcanizing presses Aand moreover it is adapted to carry out control operations thereforindividually. The green tire loading and unloading device J is mountedon the green tire carrying wagon D and the latter carries at least agreen tire to be vulcanized.

The green tire loading and unloading device J includes a horizontallyextending guide rail 51 slidably mounted on a vertically extending guiderail 50 on the green tire carrying wagon D and a carriage 52 adapted toslide across said horizontally extending guide rail 51, the carriage 52carrying the green tire grasping device F'"at its foremost end part.Further, the carriage 52 has a nut 53 attached thereto and a screw rod54 extends through the nut 53 while it is rotatably supported on thehorizontally extending guide rail 51 so that it is driven by means of amotor 55 fixedly mounted on the right end part of the horizontal guiderail 51 as seen in the drawing. On the other hand, another screw rod 56is rotatably supported on the vertically extending guide rail 50 and anut 57 through which the screw rod 56 extends is fixedly secured to thehorizontal guide rail 51 at the predetermined position. The screw rod 56is driven by means of a motor fixedly mounted on the top end part of thevertically extending guide rail 50.

A collector device 59 is disposed above the upper end of the verticalguide rail 50 so that electricity is supplied from the ceiling.

Reference letter K designates a control panel mounted on the green tirecarrying wagon.

As will be apparent from the above description, in the tire supplyingapparatus in accordance with the second embodiment tire supplying iscarried out by way of the steps of causing the green tire carrying wagonD to move on the floor by itself, stopping its movement, inclining thegreen tire loading and unloading device on the tire carrying wagon untilit assumes the correct horizontal posture, grasping a green tire on thegreen tire carrying wagon by means of the green tire grasping device,lifting it up, displacing it toward the center of the vulcanizing pressA and finally loading it on a die while the center of the green tire islocated in correct vertical alignment with the center of the die. Thus,fully automatic operations can be carried out from the step of storinggreen tires until the step of vulcanizing. There is no necessity ofdisposing a green tire receiving stand and a green tire transferringdevice for each of the vulcanizing presses A.

In the second embodiment as described above a green tire to bevulcanized is placed on the lower bead ring on the vulcanizing press Awith the aid of a green tire loading and unloading device J.Alternatively, the green tire loading and unloading device J may bemodified so as to turn by 180° so that a green tire is fitted onto theupper bead ring on the vulcanizing press A.

While the present invention has been described above with respect to twopreferred embodiments, it should be of cource understood that theinvention should not be limited only to them and various changes ormodifications may be made in a suitable manner without any departurefrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A green tire supplying apparatus for supplying agreen tire to a selected position with respect to a vulcanizing press,the selected position having a center corresponding to a center of agreen tire to be supplied to the selected position comprising:aself-propelled green tire wagon for carrying a green tire; and a greentire unloading means mounted on said wagon for transferring a green tirefrom said wagon to the selected position; said green tire unloadingmeans comprising an arm which is movable with respect to said wagon, agreen tire holding device for holding a green tire, said holding devicehaving a plurality of pawls movable to engage and disengage from a greentire, said pawls having a center of operation corresponding to a centerof a green tire to be held by said holding device, said green tireunloading means also comprising automatic aligning means connectedbetween said arm and said holding device for moving said center ofoperation in any radial direction with respect to said arm so as tobring said center of operation into correlation with the center of theselected position; said automatic aligning means comprises a first discelement fixed to said arm, a second disc element mounted to said firstdisc element for movement in a first radial direction, a plate fixed tosaid holding device and mounted to said second disc element for movementin a second radial direction which is perpendicular to said first radialdirection, and brake means engageable between said first disc element,said second disc element and said plate, for maintaining a relativeradial position therebetween; biasing means connected between said firstdisc element and said second disc element for biasing said first andsecond disc elements into a selected position in said first radialdirection; and biasing means connected between said second disc elementand said plate for biasing said secod disc element and said plate into aselected position with respect to said second radial direction.
 2. Anapparatus according to claim 1, wherein said brake means includes apneumatic inflatable spring connected to one of said first and seconddisc elements and inflatable to engage the other of said first andsecond disc elements.
 3. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein saidfirst disc element includes a pair of spaced apart rails connectedthereto, said second disc element having a pair of spaced apart railsengaged respectively with said first disc element rails extending insaid first radial direction, a second pair of rails connected to saidsecond disc element, and a second pair of rails engaged respectivelywith said second pair of second disc element rails and extending in saidsecond radial direction, said first and second disc element railsmovable along their respective rails.